Back in October 2012, we reviewed ViewSonic's 27-inch, high-resolution (2,560-by-1,440-pixel) VP-2770-LED monitor, which delivered solid professional-level image quality for £459 (ex. VAT; £550.80 inc. VAT) or $1,229. A year and a half later, ViewSonic is back with the VP2772, offering the same resolution and a similarly attractive price, but with some enhancements that further improve image quality. The ViewSonic VP2772 costs £494.99 (ex. VAT, £593.99 inc. VAT) or $1,019.99.

Outwardly, the VP2772 looks identical to its predecessor, with a matte-black chassis and sturdy tripod stand. There's plenty of adjustability, the stand supporting 120-degree swivel, -5 to 23-degree tilt and 0-150mm height settings. You can also pivot the VP2772 through 90 degrees to put the screen in portrait orientation — a useful mode for many engineers and designers. The weight of the VP2772 monitor/stand assembly is almost identical to the VP2770-LED: 8.53kg (18.8lb) versus 8.44kg (18.6lb), although the newer model has an external power brick rather than an internal power supply.

Connections are updated on the VP2772, which offers dual-link DVI-D and HDMI 1.4, both with HDCP support, plus DisplayPort 1.2, Mini-DisplayPort and DisplayPort-out (the latter is for daisy-chaining one or more monitors). There's no legacy VGA connector on the VP2772, as there was on the VP2770-LED. Also, the new model has four USB 3.0 ports (plus an upstream port), where its predecessor had two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports. As before, there are two USB ports on the right-hand side and two at the back, along with the upstream port. ViewSonic supplies power, DisplayPort (but not Mini-DisplayPort), HDMI, DVI and USB cables, along with a user guide, quick-start guide and Wizard CD-ROM.

The underside of the VP2772 carries two USB 3.0 ports and an upstream port, a power input jack, DisplayPort, Mini-DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort-out, plus an audio jack. Image: ViewSonic

The VP2772's 27-inch IPS panel has the same 2,560-by-1,440-pixel resolution as before, giving a pixel density of 108.8ppi and pixel size of 0.233mm. The typical pixel response time is also unchanged, at 12ms, as are the typical contrast ratio (1000:1) and the viewing angles (178 degrees vertically and horizontally). The anti-glare-coated IPS panel supports 10-bit colour, which means it can theoretically display up to 1.07 billion colours (humans can perceive approximately 1 million colours). A 12-bit colour engine and 14-bit LUT (Look Up Table) allows the monitor to process, grade and render up to 68.7 billion colours.

Wider gamut

The VP2772 can display up to 99 percent of the Adobe RGB colour space. Image: ViewSonic

The main change to the VP2772 is its updated LED backlighting, which increases its brightness rating to 350cd/m2 (from 300cd/m2 in the VP2770-LED). This allows the monitor to offer a wider gamut of displayable colours. In particular, ViewSonic claims that the VP2772 can display up to 99 percent of the Adobe RGB colour space, whereas the VP2770-LED could only manage the considerably narrower sRGB space. Adobe RGB is added to the sRGB, Bluish, Cool, Warm and User Color presets in the on-screen menu (OSD), which is accessed via a group of buttons on the bottom right of the front bezel. The OSD offers a good selection of image setup and adjustment options, and is reasonably easy to navigate.

ViewSonic supplies factory calibration data for the sRGB and Adobe RGB colour spaces, showing Delta E values consistently below 3 (dE measures the degree to which a displayed colour departs from an established reference, with values above 3 being perceptible to the user).

The VP2772's enhanced LED backlighting brings a trade-off in power consumption, typically getting through 65W in normal operation, 54W in Optimize mode and 41W in Conserve mode. The VP2770-LED's comparable figures were 40W, 30W and 22W.

Conclusion

The VP2770-LED was a decent professional-level 27-inch monitor when we reviewed it in 2012 costing £459 (ex. VAT; £550.80 inc. VAT) or $1,229; you can now pick this model up for £384.99 (ex. VAT, £461.99 inc. VAT) or $739.99, which is excellent value. If you need the enhanced brightness and wider colour gamut offered by the new VP2772, then £494.99 (ex. VAT, £593.99 inc. VAT) or $1,019.99 is still a very attractive price point. As far as the competition goes, Dell's slightly more expensive UltraSharp 27 U2713H (£662 ex. VAT, £794.40 inc. VAT / $849.99) is probably the main contender.